Whenever I get a three-day weekend to go paint, it feels almost like a PTO period. And I was in a particularly good mood this Friday.
I have a special relationship with the Tunnel 1 Trailhead in Golden, CO and the beautiful Clear Creek that runs through there. I’ve had many adventures with my painting crew, as well as my now-husband, who took me a bit further up the creek until we reached some absolutely beautiful green and blue pools and higher elevation rapids. The City installed a massive concrete trail system going up the length of the river, very tastefully done as to not interfere with the scenery, and it makes for the perfect walking or biking avenue to reach some particularly beautiful stretches of the creek.
After a summer of drought, we received a few rainstorms in the days prior to painting the creek. When we arrived, the creek was now “Running Strong” with gorgeous rapids, waterfalls, and a full river that reached up to the edges of the bank. We did a bit of off-trailing and climbed down under an overpass to get a better vantage point of this particular section of rapids, and it became a perfect natural composition.
Straight ahead was a bend in the river just beyond a bridge connecting both sides of the trail, with a beautiful shadow right under the bridge and glowing light coming at an angle through the canyon. The water had both depth and brilliant whites, which was very fun to paint. Even when I brought it into the studio for touch-ups, I refused to touch the water and ruin the fresh, painterly feel I worked to capture en plein air. This is still one of my favorites to date.
My tripod was set up in a rather precarious position as we stood on a boulder field, but that’s the beauty of having a three-pronged tripod and the ability to stand for long periods of time. In total we likely painted for around 4-5 hours. This was the largest plein air I had done at the time, a 9×12”, and I challenged myself to paint with a rather large brush I had recently picked up from Guiry’s. This allowed me to block everything in fast, and almost all of the water was painted with this brush. I had a lot of fun with the light in this painting, as entire sections of all major subjects of the painting were almost entirely in either light or shadow, making it easy to differentiate and keep everything consistent.
The only adjustments I made back in the studio after two months of looking at the piece were a few additional details to the rocks on the right side and a bit of differentiation in the trees in the back. I originally blurred most of it, but it felt like it needed more context as a pine-covered hillside and it feels complete to me now. I always try and stare at a piece for at least a couple of months before adding any changes, because they can take your painting from fresh and lively to overworked in just a few minutes. I also try and limit my brushstrokes during this practice to around 40-50 or less. I really want my plein air paintings to be just that - plein air - but with the added touch of a more finished and less study feel if I’m going to put them up for sale. Studies have a very important place in the practice of an artist, particularly en plein air, but there’s also merit to completing full paintings both artistically and aesthetically inside of your home. A fully complete painting from clear creek has so much more life and value in my opinion than a studio work of the same nature, especially when the process is documented and you’re able to watch the painting come to life.
